About Ruffin Womble Stephens

Arthur Stephens was in Selmer Saturday afternoon. In discussing some of the old articles about the place he calls attention to a trunk that his great - grandfather Ruffin Womble Stephens brought to this section of the county from North Carolina in 1812. He came from the mother state and settled in Hardin county from which place his grandfather, Joe Stephens moved to McNairy county a long time before the Civil War. He brought with him this old trunk. His father, the late Columbus Stephens, kept it in the family for quite a while and at his death Arthur Stephens possessed it and has had it since. Knowing that Henry Ford was interested in matters of this kind he wrote him and his secretary asked that it be sent Mr. Ford. On reflection he did not and for sentimental reason keeps it at his home in the 11th district. When the trunk was brought from North Carolina the War of 1812 was raging and Andrew Jackson was in his prime and vigor as a warrior. McNairy county had not been organized then and neither was any other county in West Tennessee at that time.